Friday, April 17, 2015

Were you this motivated as a kid?

MEDIA AVAILABILITY: Shannon is the writer of the group and asks the questions, making my job much easier.

I just finished shooting an event at the Ritz Carlton just outside the Pentagon.  It was run by the nonprofit Operation Homefront and was a celebration for the Military Child of the Year.  Each branch awards the honor to one child and let me tell you, they all deserved it.  Check out their bios below and realize that, like me, you didn't do half this much as a kid.

The event itself was one of the best I've shot in a while.  This was because three things happened that need to happen on a shoot.

1. ORGANIZATION:  The planners emailed us ahead of time with an hour-by-hour schedule telling our DoD team where we needed to be at what time. They also had a planned media availability which gave us access to the kids for interviews.

2. PLACEMENT:  Sometimes I show up to these events and have a terrible shooting position.  This place had a nice riser for the camera folks to stand on so we could shoot over the crowd while the awards happened on stage.

3. HELPFULNESS:  You'd think this would be automatic considering these groups request, and benefit from, our coverage.  It doesn't always happen though.  Our point of contact asked us several times if there was anything we needed.

It's the little things, you know?  Thanks to our photographer, EJ Hersom, for the photo!

Read the bios here.